The drive was so overwhelmingly beautiful that I could not pay any attention to where we were going. It did not matter to me what the destination was as long as it was a long-distance way, so I would have more time to look at everything the world was hiding from me. The trip ended far too early in my opinion.

  I had been so focused on everything I was seeing, I did not have a single second to think about what was going to happen to me. I only started thinking about it again as we went down a ramp into the basement of a different building. I'd like to know if my brother had the same intense visual overload I felt on his last drive. Thinking about my brother made me sad, and I could not help but wonder what type of use they would have for someone like me.

  The building we parked under was so big I couldn't imagine it until we drove up to it. I was not expecting this at all. I thought that the Falcons were awful people, so they would have to hide in scary places that normal people would not want to go. There was even a special parking spot that Not-Boss drove into.

  I was having trouble knowing what to call Not-Boss, so I decided to ask him. “Mr. Thug-man, what should I call you if you are not Boss anymore?”

  He slapped me across the face right after I said that, “Who do you think you are calling a thug? I am the personal assistant to Domingo himself. It does not matter what you call me; we will be there soon, then I will never have to see you again.”

  I had been thrown to the ground when Assistant-Guy hit me. It did not really hurt, even though I was bleeding from a split lip. I was more surprised than anything. I had been ignored for so long at Time Out that I had almost forgotten what sudden violence was like.

  I got up and silently followed him into an elevator. So much of what I was seeing now was clouded with time. It was hard for me to remember the word for elevator because it had been so many years since I had been in one. If I could, I would probably be asking endless questions about what each thing was and how it worked. Knowing that he would just hit me again if I tried to talk to him kept me from voicing all that was going on in my head.

  This was the first time in a long time that I felt like the emptiness was not going to swallow me at any moment. I was thinking faster than I had ever thought in Time Out. It felt like I was waking up from a long dream of gray, and my mind was more powerful than I had ever thought it had the potential to be.

  The speed of my mind scared me a bit, but it got me thinking more about my immediate future. What if this is what they wanted me for? Maybe they knew my mind was going to be super quick, so they wanted me to learn how to do something they could not do.

  I had to consider that for a second. The idea of being a thug who hurt children repulsed me, but I did not have the same nauseating reaction to the idea of solving puzzles for them. Would it be any better to be doing some big-brain task in the background for the organization that Domingo ran? I knew the second that I realized that it would help Domingo that I would not do something like that. The evil he brings into the world must be stopped, not helped.

  I needed to know what they were planning to do with me, so I could start using my super quick mind to get out of it. The conviction I had about stopping Domingo and his super evil empire of Falcons kept running through my mind until we made it all the way up to the top of the elevator.

  The elevator finally opened onto what looked like a construction site. There was a bunch of bags of concrete and two-by-fours piled up in the entry lobby. None of the walls were anything except frames. I could see someone in a distant room sawing something.

  I had no idea what I expected to see when we reached our destination, but it wasn't this. I looked at the assistant, hoping that he would say that we had gotten off on the wrong floor, but he just ended up grabbing my arm and started dragging me off along a path covered in dust and with random scraps of metal or wire.

  We finally reached a section covered in plastic sheets, beyond which we could not see. Mr. Assistant pulled the sheets aside and pulled me through. In the hidden section, there were a few completed rooms. I was led straight into one, where I was set down on the single chair in the middle of the room. There was one door that we entered through behind the door, and one door straight in front of the chair. The rest of the room was entirely white, except for a few cameras in the corners of the room.

  “Wait, here”

  With that brief statement, he left the room and locked the door he left through, behind the chair. I was left sitting there alone in the white room. Looking around the room, I did not see any way for me to leave other than the two doors. I immediately tried to get out through the other door, but it was locked as well.

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  I decided to wait in the chair. It had padding on it, so it was not as bad as the benches back at Time Out. I was still thinking about why they needed me when the other door in front of me opened up.

  Domingo walked in with a pistol in his hand. He had his hungry smile on his face, like every time I had seen him before. It was one of the only things about him that had not changed since we first met. He used to have scars all over his face and body, but those were all healed now. The body he once had was lean yet defined; he looked like he could compete with Arnold Schwarzenegger now. His clothing had changed to tailored suits and styled hair.

  “You know, Jaun, I respect you. While you seem to have no power and have not really done anything of substance in your entire life, you do have a special place in my heart for making me see the error of my ways. In the last year, you have forced me to face that I make mistakes. You might say that you have been my rival. I have had to put in a great deal of effort to mediate problems that you caused me personally.

  The first problem that you caused was with Doc. Doc kept requesting that I find a way to force you into his treatment room. He was chasing the high that he got the first time he hurt you. He is an addict of a sort, and the fact that you were reacting less and less to his administrations made him more and more desperate to get that fix he was always chasing. I figure that it would be a good reminder to Maria that we held all the cards and that she should stay in line. I underestimated her, and I had to bail on another project I was working on to keep Time Out’s location a secret. While all you did was hide the pain you were feeling. This simple fact snowballed into a big problem that I had to solve.

  The second time you caused me trouble was when you almost told your mom what I was planning to do with her. I am not sure if that would have prevented the eventual outcome, but it would have made it significantly harder. I should have realized that when the guards always complained about having to hear the crying and screaming in the middle of the night, it meant the assets in Time Out could hear the guards' conversations outside. No, it took you almost ruining my plans for me to realize my mistake.”

  I had not moved since he had come into the room. He was pacing around me like I was a piece of furniture. I did not dare to interrupt, remembering how terrifying this man was.

  “Giving you all the credit for both of these things isn't logical, but I have had far too easy a climb to where I am now. Everything that should be a challenge to me has turned out to have an easy solution. When I went to Infinity, I thought that nothing could stop me, and nothing has yet.

  Do you know what is right above us in this skyscraper? It is the Advent Systems Regional office. It is also where they handle all Infinity System installations for anyone within 200 km. That is what they think, at least. The second person within the Falcons to go to Infinity now runs the community outreach department right above us.

  He is supposed to find an incredibly promising low-income high school graduate once a month and give them the opportunity to get the Infinity System installed. Every time he does it, there is a huge news story about the generosity and benevolence of Advent Systems. The kid is then forgotten right away. Some disappear, or die in traffic accidents, or even get caught up in gang violence and get gunned down. It is a shame they never get the opportunity to tell anyone that their Infinity System does not appear to have ever activated.

  We have a system: every 4th installation package is sent down a hidden shaft to our installation center, the only unregistered installation center in the world. It might seem like 3 installations a year isn't much, but look at what I've achieved with just one. The Falcon’s will soon be far more than a powerful gang. In fact, I am doing our first install for the year in a few hours. It is all so exciting.”

  I did not dare interrupt him while he was talking, but as it seemed like he had finally stopped to take a breath, I decided to ask my burning question. “Why did you have to kill my brother?”

  Domingo looked at me with a second of confusion, but then it seemed like he figured out what I was asking.

  “Oh, I did not kill your brother; he seems like he has a lot of promise. I can work with someone like that. The training camp will be the start of molding him into the perfect soldier for our army. I am going to make a fantastic Falcon out of him.

  No, you were always the favorite child. Why do you think Carlos never had to do any treatments?

  Did you think I would just monologue to anyone? Fuck no, that sounds like an incredibly stupid way of getting caught.

  You are special. You see, I have a tendency to keep all my plans secret. This is great for me because almost everything is successful, as no one knows about it before it happens, but it also means I don’t get any time to gloat. To help with this disappointing aspect of always being successful, I had started using the time before my executions to talk about some of my most impressive accomplishments. It really has been helping me work through some of my issues, so you have my thanks.”

  I felt like I had been plunged into a bucket of ice water. I had a few seconds to feel thankful that my brother was going to live before the immediacy of my death hit me. I had been building up a sense of hope that I would have a chance to stop Domingo until just now

  “Now let me start up the Live Stream so your mother can watch as I shoot you right in that hole in your face I already conveniently made for my bullet.”

  He took a remote out of his jacket pocket and pressed a button.

  “Maria, I am so happy that you get to watch me finally put an end to this parasite of a son, who has been dragging you down all of your life. I know you will show your gratitude in a few hours when I come and see you again.”

  Domingo finally pointed the gun at my head. There was a flash and ….